


Coffee in Tokyo

by TheHeartOfStories



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan, Tokyo Ghoul
Genre: Alternate Universe - Tokyo Ghoul, College AU, Gen, Ghoul!Levi, Modern AU, Other, coffee shop AU, levihan - Freeform, non-binary Hange
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-15
Updated: 2020-12-22
Packaged: 2021-03-10 23:13:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,270
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28095228
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheHeartOfStories/pseuds/TheHeartOfStories
Summary: "Fuck, I'm not even sure where to start, so I'm just gonna spit it out." Sighing, Levi held their gaze. "Hange, I'm a ghoul, and I need your help."A shit-eating grin lit up Hange's face."I'll help you on one condition."Levi's brows furrowed."You go on a date with me."
Relationships: Levi/Hange Zoë
Comments: 4
Kudos: 62





	1. Not The Confession They Expected

“I just don’t understand why you can’t grow a pair and ask them.” Isabel’s hands were on her waist, one hip popped out. She gave Levi a look -- no,  _ the look _ \-- the one she’d given him every once and awhile throughout the past semester. Recently, though, she started giving them to him almost daily, eyebrows wiggling and thin lips twitching. 

Farlan leaned against the kitchen bar, arms crossed over his chest. He glanced between them and smirked. Levi scowled, jamming his hands down his skinny jeans pockets. 

“Oh, I don’t  _ know _ ,” Levi nearly spat out, “maybe because it’s a matter of life and death.” 

Isabel only rolled her eyes. 

“Aniki, you’re being ridiculously dramatic. You’ve really got nothing to fear by just asking them, and you know it.” 

Fuck, Isabel was right. 

***

The cherry blossoms were in full bloom. Pale pink petals floated on lazy spring breezes. Hange insisted they take the route through the park back to their apartment instead of their usual walk down twisting Tokyo streets just so they could admire everything a little longer. Trees lined the bustling path. Everybody and their mother seemed to be out and about. Levi watched a father scold his daughter for trying to climb up one of the cherry blossom trees. 

His stomach growled.

“Earth to Shorty,” Hange punched his shoulder, “are you even listening to me?” 

“You telling me you’re still bitching about Dr. Sommers’ grammar assignment?” He smacked their wrist away.

“Dr. Sommers is just an awful teacher, really. Independent clauses and hyperbole fun facts are beyond my pay grade.” Hange pouted and stared at their feet. 

Something inside of Levi’s chest twisted when he saw Hange sink into themself, crest-fallen. 

“Hey,” he pinched their elbow, grabbing their attention. “That’s why you’ve got me.” 

Their head shot up. Bangs fell across their face, framed their cheeks. Loose locks dusted their shoulders and wrinkled hoodie. They smiled at him. A blush crept up his throat, and he quickly looked at the ducks in the pond.

“I’ll help you study all that crap and edit your papers.” 

“You really are the best.” 

“I know.” 

By the time they got to Hange’s apartment, his ears were red. Hange burst through the front door and bustled into their studio. Following close behind them, Levi carefully brushed ivy vines out of the threshold as the door quietly clicked closed behind him. Pots and pans banged about the kitchen while Hange tore through their cabinets for their watering can. Levi shouldered his backpack onto the folded up futon, narrowly missing Hange’s plethora of pillows. 

The kitchen sink spluttered to life. Hange didn’t turn the faucet off before they were bustling towards Levi. Their foot pushed dirty plates and used cups around the coffee table. A bowl slipped from its edge, and Levi darted forward to catch it. Then Hange teetered on the table, stretching long to water the other hanging plants that were draped about the studio walls. 

“Do you want anything to snack on while we study?” The hem of Hange’s button down came out of their jeans, flashing Levi a hint of warm skin. He was surprised to see a smattering of freckles along the seam of their hip. Transfixed, he stared at the smooth expanse of their stomach until his mouth watered. 

Hange hopped off the coffee table and looked at him with a brow quirked. Guilt flooded his chest as he shook his head. He turned to his backpack and rifled through it, searching for his binder while Hange rushed away to turn the sink off. Then they plopped down beside him with a melon pan and an unopened Pretz box in hand. 

“You good Smalls?” 

He nodded so fast his teeth clacked together. 

“Yes. Yep. Yup, I’m good. Fine, never been better.” Levi nervously scratched his undercut while he flipped through his Japanese Language Skills papers, scrambling to move the conversation away from himself. “So, uh, how’s working for your uncle going?” 

Hange pulled out their binder as well, biting back a secret smile. For the past couple of weeks, it hadn’t escaped their notice that Levi had been acting a bit strangely around them. From all of their friend’s recent blushing, they couldn’t help but hope that -- maybe, just maybe -- they knew why Levi was being weird. They wanted him to ask them on a date, but, sooner or later, Hange would just have to ask him themself. 

“Oh, it’s so much fun! Being at the funeral home, helping my uncle prep the bodies -- it’s only reassuring me that mortuary science is the right career path for me.” 

“I just don’t know who wakes up and says, ‘yes, today I want to spend all of my time around rotting bodies’ --” 

“-- You know me!” 

Levi’s eyes narrowed at Hange before he returned to organizing his papers for their homework. 

“Unfortunately.” 

“Rude!” Hange smacked the back of his head.

“Ow.” Levi smashed his shoulder against theirs. “Fuck off, Four Eyes. Do you want me to help you with this grammar bullshit or not?” 

Evening waltzed through the cracks between Hange’s balcony blinds faster than Levi would’ve liked. Before he knew it, they had finished all of that week’s Japanese assignments. 

Hange played YouTube videos on their laptop. They hugged a pillow to their chest. Their arms were wrapped around their shins, chin resting on the tops of their knees. Levi couldn’t concentrate on the stupid anime. Instead, he kept glancing at Hange out of the corner of his eye. 

“Alright.” Hange sat up. Their pillow slumped onto the floor as they leaned forward, pausing the video. Then they turned towards Levi. “What’s up with you?” 

Swallowing, he sat up. 

“So, I’m not even gonna deny it. Yeah, you’re right. I’ve gotta tell you something but --” his hands wrung together “-- I’m pretty fucking scared to tell you.” 

Their brows furrowed. 

“Levi, you can tell me anything.” Their hand fell onto his bouncing knee. His leg stilled. “I’m your friend. I’ve got your back through thick and thin.” 

“Yeah, I’m not so sure you’ll still feel like that after you hear what I’ve got to say.” 

They rolled their eyes. Giddiness flooded their stomach. 

“Just spit it out, Smalls. You’ll feel a lot better after you get whatever it is off your chest.” 

He nodded, and his leg started bouncing again. Hange sat back. 

“O.K., so I’ve got a lot of shit to explain. So, um, just let me finish before you bombard me with questions.” 

Hange nodded and folded their arms over their chest. Levi cleared his throat. 

“Fuck, I’m not even sure where to start, so I’m just gonna spit it out.” Sighing, he held their gaze. “Hange, I’m a ghoul, and I need your help.” 

Their jaw dropped, eyes wide. 

“No way,” they breathed as Levi started talking fast. 

“My family and I -- we, we don’t kill people, though. I swear to you, we don’t. We go up to the  Aokigahara forest, and, and --  _ fuck --  _ we take the bodies left over from the suicides.” He paused. A trembling hand ran through his hair. His bangs fell across his flushed face

“You’re a ghoul. . .” Hange’s voice trailed off as they looked him up and down, chewing their cheek. 

He nodded once. 

“. . . And you need my help?” 

“Uh yeah. So we can’t always get to the forest since it’s, like, two hours away, you know? Things come up. I, um, wanted to ask you if you could help me steal bodies from your uncle’s funeral home.” 

Hange’s brows shot into their hairline. 

“So you want me to be your accomplice for how many crimes?” 

Levi turned white. Hange threw their head back and laughed, shoulders shaking. 

“I’m just teasing you —”

“— Hange, how the absolute fuck could you tease me after what I just told you? Fuck, do you even know what ghouls are?” 

Hange grabbed the pillow off the floor and put it behind their back before they leaned against the futon. 

“Yes, actually, I’m well aware of what ghouls are. You of all people know how obsessed I am with them.” 

“Yeah, but reading about ghouls versus committing third degree felonies with a ghoul are two very different things.” 

“You make it sound like this information — knowing what you are — changes the fact that we’re friends.” 

Levi slumped against the couch. He couldn’t look at Hange. Instead, his fingers picked at his nails. 

“Doesn’t it?” He mumbled. 

Hange grabbed Levi’s hands and squeezed. He looked at them. 

“No, it doesn’t, Levi.” 

He tried to swallow past the sudden thickness in his throat, but all he could do was nod. 

“So you’ll help me?” 

A shit-eating grin lit up Hange’s face. Their freckles stood out against their tan skin. When they blinked, Levi noticed freckles dusted their lids. It churned his growling stomach into knots.

“I’ll help you on one condition.”

Levi’s brows furrowed. 

“You go on a date with me.” 


	2. Where We're Meant To Be

So that’s how Levi found himself in a pair of new-ish jeans and an ironed button down shirt that Isabel picked out for him. But her eyes nearly bugged out of her head when he sat down to put on his scuffed sneakers. 

“You’re really wearing those shoes?” 

He ignored her. 

She almost looked faint as he zipped up his blue hoodie -- the one with a couple of old bullet holes in it. Isabel got him the jacket when they were all nothing but teenagers, still fresh-faced Titans. But that wasn’t a time in his life he wanted to think about anymore. They’d been out of that gang of ghouls and in hiding for almost three years now; it was time to put those memories behind himself. 

Almost an hour later, he haunted the bustling streets of downtown Tokyo. Neon lights flashed across skyscrapers. Even in the city, cherry blossom trees lined the twisting roads. Fallen petals were kicked up by cars at intersections. 

Levi waited on the stairs that led up to the coffee shop he’d picked out for their date, nervous hands buried in his hoodie pockets. After 24 miserable years of life, he’d never been on a date before, and he sure as all hell would never admit to Hange that he’d never been kissed before either. His stomach was in knots. 

He shifted his weight from sneaker to sneaker while he checked every face that passed him. When he saw Hange in the crowd wearing their oversized brown coat, covered in all sorts of iron-on patches, he waved them over. They wore ripped, acid-washed jeans with mismatched colorful socks pulled up to their knees. Suddenly, when their purple Converses squeaked against the pavement as they dashed over to Levi with a massive grin plastered across their freckly cheeks, relief washed over him. 

Fuck, why had the butterflies threatened to get the best of him? This was  _ Hange  _ of all people: the only person that was almost as close to him as Farlan and Isabel. He couldn’t help his half smile as they brushed back their greasy hair from their flushed face. 

Yeah, this was gonna go well. Levi was sure of it. 

“Let’s get this over with, Four Eyes.” Levi turned on his heel and headed towards the coffee shop entrance with Hange right behind him. 

“You make it sound like this is gonna be like pulling teeth out.” 

Levi looked at them over his shoulder. They pinched their fingers together, crab-like, and winked. Huffing, he grimaced. 

“Might as well be.”

Anteiku was a quiet place off the main street. Levi swore up and down to Hange that they brewed the best cup of coffee in all of Tokyo, and maybe -- maybe he wasn’t ready to admit it to himself just yet -- he was a bit excited to share his favorite hole-in-the-wall cafe with his best friend. While Hange babbled all about their day, they tucked themselves into a corner booth across from each other. Some young, purple-haired girl Levi didn’t quite catch the name of showed up at their table to take their order. 

After the girl scribbled their drinks on a piece of paper she summarily shoved into her apron pocket, Levi plopped his arms onto the table and leaned forward, catching Hange’s wrist. They stopped talking mid-sentence, their mouth hanging open as their eyes flickered down to Levi’s lips. A blush kissed their face. 

“For the most part, it’s safe to talk about ghoul stuff here, but you just gotta keep your voice down.” 

Hange nodded slowly. Then a sly smile flashed across their face as they broke Levi’s grip on their wrist and laced their fingers together. 

“Alright, then. That’s good because I’ve got a million questions for you.” 

All Levi could do was blink dumbly, shocked. 

“Obviously it’s true that you guys eat people, but I always thought the people you eat have to be alive.” 

“Nope,” Levi shook his head. “You just taste better when you’re fresh.” 

Hange snorted and leaned over the table, getting closer to him. They looked at him over their glasses’ rim, mock serious.

“Have you killed before?”

Levi rolled his eyes. 

“We’re supposed to be on a date, Shitty Glasses. Ask me something else.”

“Fine.” They pouted, sitting back in their seat. “I also read that ghouls have heightened senses in comparison to humans. Is that true too?” Hange tilted their head, unaware of how exposed their throat was. 

Levi tried to ignore the smell of their pulse, the way it made his mouth water.

“Yeah,” he swallowed, shrugging. “Well, maybe not. I don’t think I can see better than humans, but I know I can smell and hear things better than you guys. We’re also faster and stronger. I’d say our pain tolerance is higher too.” 

The waitress returned with mugs filled to the brim with steaming coffee. Tucking loose hair behind her ear, the waitress shared a small smile with Levi before leaving. Hange sipped their drink and coughed. 

“Hot, hot, hot,” they hissed. 

Levi smirked, drinking deeply from his mug. 

“See?” He chuckled. 

Then he noticed they were still holding hands. 

“O.K., but drinking stuff isn’t really a great way to measure something like that. How do you  _ know _ ?” 

Levi sat back against the booth, chewing his cheek. 

“We’ve gotta get used to it -- to pain -- when we’re real little.” 

“What do you mean?” Hange’s brows furrowed.

“When we release our kagune, it rips through our back, and it hurts like a real bitch when you’re just a kid.” 

“Oh.” Their face fell. Hange rubbed their thumb over Levi’s knuckles.

Could they feel the valleys of his scars, white with age? 

“I’m sorry.” 

Levi shook his head. 

“Don’t be. It’s just a part of life.” 

Hange nodded slowly. 

“Alright then.” Their voice trailed off. “What kind of kagune do you have?” 

“Ukaku.” 

“I hear those are the ones that look kinda like feathers. Right?” 

Levi nodded once, worrying his lip. His heart leapt into his throat. He tried to sip his coffee, avoiding Hange’s gaze. 

“Would you like to see?” 

Shit. Did he really just offer that to them? 

Hange’s jaw dropped. 

“I would love to,” they whispered, awestruck. 

***

While they walked through downtown Tokyo, Levi told Hange about his apartment. He shared it with his sister and brother, he said, but the fact that they all came from different sets of parents didn’t mean anything to them. Isabel was at the hair salon where she worked as a cosmetologist. Farlan was just out. Levi wasn’t sure what he was up to. 

“What happened to your family?” 

“Dad was killed by some rival gang. Guess he was hunting on someone else’s territory. He was probably eaten because we never found his body.” 

Skyscrapers faded to apartments, and traffic quieted down. They came to a complex with wrought iron stairs that wrapped around the building. 

“Mom tried her best to take care of me. Whored herself out for money and brought home suicide victims for me. That’s how I picked up my, uh,  _ vegetarian  _ diet.” 

Levi took the steps two at a time up to the eighth floor. He rifled through his pockets for his keys as they strode down the hallway to his apartment door.

“What happened to her?”

“The Doves got her.” 

“Oh, God, Levi. How old were you?” 

Levi jammed his keys into the lock and threw the door open. 

“Eleven, maybe.” 

Hange felt sick. They followed him inside. 

“Take your shoes off,” he snapped as he kicked his sneakers off and tucked them into the corner by the front door. 

Hange toed their Converses off while Levi hopped over the back of the couch. He drew the balcony blinds closed, plunging the living room into shadows. Hange shouldered their coat off and draped it over the side of the couch as they made their way to Levi. He stood in front of the blinds still, fidgeting with his hoodie strings. 

“What’s up with you?” Hange took a step closer to him. 

“Nothing.” Levi shrugged; he’d never admit he was nervous. 

There was something intimate about showing his kagune to a human. It was like trusting Hange with a piece of the most precious part of who he was. 

“So,” he swallowed, “I’m gonna take my shirt off so it doesn’t get torn up.” 

Eagerness made Hange buzz as Levi folded his jacket and set it on the edge of the couch. Quick fingers unbuttoned his shirt. Even in the dark, Hange was surprised to see how muscular he was. With cheeks growing pinker by the second, Levi kept his gaze low as he turned around, his back facing Hange. Silvery scars, puckered remnants of violent memories, traced the rise and fall of his shoulders, his ribs, hips. Someday, they promised themself, they would have the courage to ask about the stories behind each one.

“Stand back,” he commanded. 

The smooth expanse just below Levi’s nape rippled before exploding. Hange gasped. Wings like they had never seen before filled the room, brushed the popcorn ceiling and dusted the carpet. They were as fluid as water, swaying with a current Hange couldn’t feel. From where they were attached to his back, they were a purple so deep the color almost looked black in the shadows. As they grew, they lightened to red with pale pink tips. 

Levi lowered himself to the floor. He brought his knees to his chest. Hesitantly, Hange moved around him, marveling at his kagune. Then they stood before him. He looked up at them with black eyes and red irises. Pulsing veins rose to the surface just beneath them. But Hange felt fearless as they sank to a knee across from Levi.

“You’re beautiful,” they murmured into the space between them, their hand reaching out to brush his bangs from his forehead.

Their fingertips traced down his cheek. His hand shot out, and he grabbed their wrist, yanking them closer. Levi felt their breath on his face as he leaned in. Then their lips met. Hange’s lungs hitched. They paused, held each others’ eyes before deepening the kiss. As his lids fluttered closed, Levi tasted coffee on their tongue. Their hands found his jaw, brushed over the stubble of his undercut as they pulled him closer. 

Their smell overwhelmed him. His hands found their hips and traveled over the small of their back. Their jeans were rough against his fingers, but, still, he drew them against his bare chest. Levi felt Hange’s pulse just beneath their soft lips. 

He couldn’t shake the feeling that this was exactly where both of them were meant to be. 


End file.
